'Muslims For Loyalty' Campaign Kicks Off In D.C.

In the District, a national Muslim advocacy organization is launching an ad campaign which urges the American Muslim community to pledge loyalty to the U.S.

Members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community say they've had it with the negative forces which encourage young Muslims to engage in homegrown terrorism. Tuesday the group distributed approximately 100,000 flyers in support of their "Muslims for Loyalty" ad campaign. The idea is to promote the notion that the Muslim community is peaceful by design and rejects violence.

National Vice President Naseem Mahdi says American Muslims have a religious duty to be loyal citizens.

"...Our 'Muslims for Loyalty' campaign intends to peacefully, but forcefully, convey [to] the American Muslim youth that all messages which encourage disloyalty to or terrorism against America contradict the teaching of Islam, the holy Quran and Prophet Muhammad..." he says.

Members of the community, which maintains chapters in over 190 countries, say they will begin articulating their message door to door. They will also launch an ad campaign on busses and billboards across the U.S.